Part 11 (1/2)
THE GREAT ADVENTURE.
”Ah! here you are, Gurney, and Miss Hartley, too,” I exclaimed. ”That is good; better, indeed, than I dared hope, for I did not expect to see you, Miss Hartley, at least for another two or three hours.”
”No,” answered Grace; ”nor did I expect to be here so soon. But a lucky chance enabled me to get my box out of the hut un.o.bserved, and, George happening to come to my window soon afterward to make his final arrangements, we seized the opportunity and came straight away at once.
Mrs Pierson, with whom I have been staying, believes me to be in bed with a bad headache. I made my escape through the window.”
”Excellent!” said I. ”Then I suppose we may set to work almost at once, may we not, Gurney?”
”Yes, as soon as you please, Mr Troubridge,” answered Gurney. ”But I think it would be wise to give everybody a chance to get home and into bed first. It would be rather awkward if anybody should happen to be out late, taking a walk on the Head, and should see us.”
”That is true; it would,” said I. ”Which reminds me that as I came along the beach, on my way here just now, I once or twice had an impression of being followed. I thought that possibly it might be you, and waited for you to overtake me; but nothing came of it.”
”It is a case of 'guilty conscience', I expect, Mr Troubridge,” laughed Gurney. ”Why should anyone follow you? n.o.body can possibly suspect us, for neither Grace nor I--nor you either, I suppose--have ever breathed a word of this to a single soul, not even to each other when there has been the slightest chance of our being overheard.”
”No, of course not; it was my fancy, perhaps,” I answered. ”I must plead guilty to having felt a trifle anxious and nervous during the last few days. But that is all gone and past now. The first thing that I want to talk to you about, Gurney, is the boats. I don't much like the idea of going to sea without boats, and especially the longboat. Now, so far as the quarter boats are concerned, I believe we might manage to get them both hoisted up to the davits, by hooking the watch-tackle on to the falls; but what about the longboat? Do you think there is any possibility of our being able to hoist her in?”
”We might, certainly--if we only had the time,” answered Gurney. ”But it would have to be done before we pa.s.sed out through the reef. In smooth water--if, as I say, we had the time--I dare say it could be done. But not outside, with the s.h.i.+p rolling and tumbling about; the boat would be stove long before we could get her inboard.”
”Undoubtedly,” I agreed. ”But I have a plan which I think will afford us the time to hoist in the longboat as well as the two quarter boats before we go outside. When once we are safely out of the Basin, what have we to fear? Nothing, except being overtaken and the s.h.i.+p recaptured by a strong body of men sent after us in boats. But if they have no boats they cannot follow us! Now, my plan is this. I propose that, as soon as it seems safe to do so, we proceed to the spot where all the boats are moored, man the jollyboat, and tow all the rest off to the s.h.i.+p, veering them astern by their painters when we get aboard.
Then we will loose and set the fore and main topsail and fore topmast staysail, slip the cable, and work the s.h.i.+p out between the Heads into the lagoon. Once there, we are safe; we can heave-to, and hoist the two quarter boats to the davits, then put on the hatches, and hoist in the longboat, with no fear that anyone can possibly interfere with us.
Then, when we have completed our work to our satisfaction, we can cast the remaining boats adrift--they will be certain to drive ash.o.r.e undamaged, and be recovered--and we can go out through the reef in broad daylight.”
”By Jove, Mr Troubridge, you have hit it!” exclaimed Gurney with enthusiasm. ”If we can manage to secure the whole of the boats, and get the s.h.i.+p out of the Basin, undetected, we may defy all hands of them.
Yes; I see no possibility of a hitch in that plan. But we shall not be safe until we are outside the Basin. And now, what do you think, Mr Troubridge, will it be safe to make a beginning at once, or shall we give them a little longer to get indoors and to sleep?”
”Every minute is of the utmost value to us,” said I. ”Still, it would be a pity to spoil all by being too precipitate. Let us wait another hour, at the expiration of which I think we may safely make a move.”
Accordingly, we all three sat down in the deepest shadow of the rocks, chatting in low tones and discussing the prospects of the voyage, the chances of success in the somewhat desperate attempt that we were about to make, and kindred matters, until my watch showed that we were within an hour of midnight, when I thought it would be unwise to delay any longer, and accordingly gave the word to make a move. Whereupon Gurney hoisted his sweetheart's box on his shoulders, and we all three moved cautiously and in dead silence along the beach toward where the boats were moored, keeping close in among the shadows cast by the cliffs and the overhanging foliage.
The boats, with the exception of the jollyboat, were all moored in a string at a distance of about a hundred yards from the beach, the longboat riding to a small boat anchor, while the others were secured to her by their painters, the jollyboat being hauled up on the sand. This was the boat that we intended to use to go off to the s.h.i.+p in, towing the other boats astern; and when we got alongside her, Gurney swung Grace Hartley's box off his shoulder, intending to deposit it in the stern-sheets of the boat prior to launching her. As he leaned over the gunwale to do so, however, he started back with a smothered e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, for at the same instant a human figure rose up out of the bottom of the boat, where it had been crouching. To drop the box on the sand was, with Gurney, the work of a second; and the next instant he had the man by the throat and was bearing him back into the bottom of the boat again, while Grace Hartley seized my arm and gripped it like a vice to prevent herself from screaming.
”Not a sound, for your life, Grace!” I hissed in her ear as I shook myself free from her grip. Then, springing to Gurney's side, I exclaimed in a low, tense whisper:
”Steady, Gurney; steady, man! don't kill the fellow, and don't make a noise. Who is he? Let him get up and tell us who he is, and what he is doing here.”
”Do you hear what Mr Troubridge says?” growled Gurney in his prisoner's ear. ”Get up and give an account of yourself. But if you attempt to raise your voice I'll choke the life out of you without more ado. Now then, let us have a look at you. Why, I'll be shot if it isn't Saunders!”
Saunders, it may be explained, was one of the original crew of the _Mercury_, and a very quiet, steady, well-conducted fellow. It was probably for that reason that he had not been chosen to go in the s.h.i.+p on her projected voyage to China.
I approached the man and stared in his face. Sure enough it was indeed Saunders; and a very scared as well as somewhat angry appearance he presented.
”Why, Saunders,” I exclaimed in low-pitched accents of surprise, ”what are you doing here in the boat at this time of night? Come, explain yourself!”
”I will, Mr Troubridge, in half a jiffy, as soon as I've got the feel of Gurney's grip out of my throat,” answered the man. ”It's like this, sir. I've been on this here island long enough to see that Wilde's ideas won't work. I can see that, accordin' to his plan, I may stay here all my life and be no better off than I am to-day, 'cause why--the harder I and others like me works the better it is for a lot of lazy s.h.i.+rkin' swabs, who've made up their minds that they'll never do a hand's turn if they can help it. And I don't see no fun in workin' for s...o...b..nks like that. I've had about enough of it, and I wants to get away from this here place to somewheres where a man can get the full value of his labour. So I've kep' my eye on you all day to-day, Mr Troubridge, on the lookout for a chance to ast you to let me stow myself away aboard the _Mercury_ until she gets well out to sea, intendin', you understand, sir, to cut and run at the first port that we touches at.
But I couldn't get the chance to speak to you without bein' seen by them as I didn't want to see me, so I follered you to-night when you started out for a walk--as I thought--intendin' to range up alongside of you when we was well clear of the settlement. And afore I could arrange my thoughts s.h.i.+pshape, so's to make clear what I wanted, you'd jined George here and the young lady, and I couldn't help hearin' pretty near all that was said. Now, sir, I understands that you and Gurney feels pretty much as I do about Wilde and his notions, and intends to give the lot of 'em the slip by makin' off all alone by yourselves in the s.h.i.+p to-night.
Ain't that it, sir?”
”Well, supposing that we had any such plan, what have you to say about it?” I returned.
”Only this, sir,” answered Saunders, ”that I begs you most earnestly to let me come in with you. It's a stiff job, Mr Troubridge, for two people--for the young lady won't count nothin' to speak of--to work a s.h.i.+p the size of the _Mercury_, and you'd find me most uncommon useful, I a.s.sure ye, sir. I'm an A.B., and knows my business as well as e'er a man--”